How to Build a Custom Computer

Building custom computers is one of the modern day's type of do-it-yourself skills. Computers have become as necessary as an oven in our homes. Once considered a nerd engagement, it has now become more popular among different layers of people who might know that it saves money, as well as helping to acquire better equipment than an off-the-shelf purchase.

Steps

1. Decide what job you want to do with that computer, in addition to the budget that you are willing to commit. That job could be business and office works, games and overclocking, media editing and creative works, computation and scientific works, or daily household works and Internet surfing. Also, you might like to have a media entertainment box.
2. Using the CPU manufacturer guides, select the CPU (processor) that can handle your workload.
   • Having decided on the job and CPU, your choices will be narrowed down to certain categories of motherboards. In geek jargon, a motherboard is called a "mobo."
   • The chipset is the main parameter in selecting the motherboard. While the CPU shows how powerful a computer is, the chipset shows how agile a computer is in interfacing with its human operator. The CPU is the master and the chipset is the butler.
   • The connection of mobo with CPU is defined in terms of the CPU socket type.
   • New CPUs come with a cooler (or an HSF: heatsink and fan). You could buy your own HSF for a higher performance in terms of created noise and reducing the temperature of CPU.
   • The motherboard and its chipset should be accommodating for the selected CPU. The socket of the mobo should be compatible with the CPU.
3. See what type of memory you will need. The second factor in selecting of the mobo is the amount of memory ram sticks that it can have upon completion of the computer. This is dictated by the chipset of the mobo.
4. Hence, you need to buy a certain amount of memory RAM for your build. Memory is better to buy in pairs and more expensive in triples and quadruples. The speed of the RAMs and their technology in terms of ddr, ddr2, and ddr3 are other factors for purchasing them. Modern RAMs have a heat radiating cover.
5. Decide for the form factor, that is, the size or dimensions of the mobo. A larger motherboard can have more connection buses for later additional specialised daughterboards.
   • Modern motherboards buses are PCI-e, in different sizes such as x16, x8 and x4 which is the smallest. Still there are one or more PCI for legacy cards. Modern boards do not support the older AGP buses used for older graphics cards.
6. Find out about peripherals. Besides the extension buses, one looks to peripheral device connectors. These device could be keyboard, mouse, monitor, audio and network connections, and USB connections. Recently, SATA connection for external hard drives have been added to the array of modern mobo connections.
   • A motherboard has extra connections onboard to be used for connecting to the front and rear panels of the computer box (case) for additional features
7. Get the right kind of networking capabilities. Almost all recently manufactured motherboards come with onboard audio and onboard networking capacity and you do not need to think about them, except that you want to enjoy extreme audio experiences and newly emerged optical fiber networking connection to the Computer. Such people should consider having enough buses on the motherboard for these extensions.
   • In contrast, not all the motherboards have an onboard graphics circuitry for connection to one or more monitor. Such are the boards bought for extreme gaming. If you are buying such a motherboard then you should consider the necessary extension bus(es) for attaching graphics card(s) daughter-board. It is becoming usual to have two graphics cards in extreme gaming. They need to be bridged together to act as one powerful graphics card (such as crossfire)
8. Decide on the box of your computer; whether to be a desktop or standing tower. A Computer box is called a "case." Desktop cases are not fashionable anymore due to space they take on your desk and lack of elegance.
   • If you want to build a media box for entertainment and put it next to your TV, you should select from a range of specialised size media boxes.
9. In selecting the case consider number of "bays" for open and hidden devices that come in 3.5" and 5.25" form factors, and front panel connectors for USB, audio, and recently external SATA; also ease of opening of the cover and number of fans and ease of ventilation.
10. Cases that come with a power supply, limit your choices of brand and nominal power of the power supply. You decide for the power supply unit or PSU of your computer. Depending on your budget, go to the quietest PSU. Many intermittent faults of a computer are attributed to low power low quality PSU. A modern computer should not have a PSU with less than 500 watts of power. There are on-line sites that calculate your necessary power. Multiply their number by a factor of 1.5 to 2.
11. Get an HDD Your operating system becomes installed on a hard disk drive (HDD). Buy an internal hard disk with a minimum capacity of 320 GB and 3.5" form factor. Cache of an HDD is important in speed of your work. A larger cache makes a HDD more expensive. Almost all the HDD brands have the same quality. Recently, solid state drives (SSD) have solved the problems of noise and heat that HDDs cause.
12. Buy an Optical Drive to be able to use CDs, DVDs or even Blue-Rays. You'll be able to read and write optical media. An internal dual layer DVD r/w is the minimum to buy. Become sure to get both HDD and optical drives in SATA.
13. Add an operating system (OS) to the list. Most people use a Windows operating system. If you get an Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) version it is cheaper. An OEM marries with your motherboard and cannot be transferred to any other motherboard. A so-called, retail version (or RTM: release to marketing)is more expensive but you can decommission it on one motherboard and put it on another motherboard. You might like to be adventurous and use the very powerful, but free, Linux operating system.
14. Get a few other things such as fans, screws, washers, cables, anti-static wrist band and perhaps a small anti-static bench mat.
    • If you get these things from the same shop, the vendor is obliged to give necessary advice, replace defected items and compensate for small bits and pieces.
15. Try buying used or new things from garage or car boot sales, college season sales, or on-line auction sites. These are more adventurous but sometimes so cheap that it is well worth the risks.
    
    Source : www.wikihow.com